Hi,
Facebook in 2009, what a different world…I have no memory of writing or sharing the post below, but I’m glad I did.
This must have been the day that the Rabbi showed our Hebrew school class Food Inc. to try and teach us about the importance of eating kosher meat. It obviously did have a significant impact on me, just not in the way the Rabbi had hoped. I haven’t eaten chickens, or other birds, in 14 years. Shortly after my chicken decision, I also stopped eating fish and all other animal meat and was vegetarian until May of 2014. You know the rest.
-K
What I’ve Read
USDA Publishes New Standards for Organic Livestock and Poultry Production, Promotes More Competitive Organic Market - These new standards came from a preview of the final Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards rule set to go into effect Jan 2, 2024 and with a compliance date for organic operations of Jan 2, 2025 (with a few exceptions that have until 2029). The goal of this rule is to increase transparency and improve the uniformity of animal welfare practice requirements. The rule’s scope is focused on: outdoor space requirements, indoor and outdoor living conditions, poultry stocking densities, preventative health care practices, phyiscal alterations and euthanasia, transport, handling and slaughter. Of course this doesn’t change the fact that billions of animals are raised and killed for consumption every year. But this is a harm-reduction step that could make a difference in the key areas, although I’m not holidng my breath for the final rule to pass. I anticipate Big Ag will not quietly accept these new standards that will likely threaten a very small portion of its massive profits. An educated guess considering the history of farmed animal welfare legislation attempts in this country.
Walmart’s ‘Regenerative Foodscape’- This is part of a series by Civil Eats covering The Long Reach of the Walmart-Walton Empire. The TLDR; the ultra-wealthy become self-aware thanks to societal and scientific tides changing, see the damage caused by decades of shortsighted actions that made maximizing profit at the expense of everyone and everything else the societal, political, and economic norm, and then try to clean up their legacy through philanthropy and promises that in a couple more decades they will have made some improvements in the impact of their business. They can truly revolutionize our food system if they want to, or they can make enough small changes and big donations that will give them enough positive PR without having to give up their empire or truly repair the harm they caused. An even shorter TLDR comes from the article quoting environmental scientist David LeZaks; “‘Regenerative economics and capitalism don’t play well together.”’
GFI identifies untapped upcycling opportunities - Three cheers for shaping the circular bioeconomy to help reduce food waste! The GFI report identifies high-value crops that are leftovers or sidestream products created by current agriculutral practices that could be transformed into food. This study was focused on analyzing the potential of certain sidestream products—protein concentrates, protein hydrolysate, and lignocellulosic sugars—and making recommendations for those in the ingredient and agriculutral manufacturing spaces and policymakers. The changes are not ready to be implemented tomorrow, they will first require further R&D, new manufacturing processes, and shifts in supplychains.
The World’s Broken Food System Costs $12.7 Trillion a Year - The FAO research used estimates for 154 countries that totaled up the global hidden costs from agrifood systems. They found the cost to be $12.7 trillion USD for 2020, or about 10% of global GDP. Some experts have pointed out limitations and challenges of the metrics used in the research, the FAO used purhcasing power partiy dollars that compare living standards across diverse countries and may not best represent the interconnectedness of hidden costs from cross-border value calculations. The 2024 FAO report will follow this one and present case studies to assist in the implementation of true-cost accounting.
Check out the cool, interactive version of the report shared by the FAO. No seriously, it’s a fun way to read about the economics of global agricultural and food systems.
Animal Welfare Advocates Want a Say in the Next Farm Bill - You’re gosh darn right we do. This article features Farm Sanctuary‘s perspective on the Farm Bill through an interview by its advocacy director Aaron Rimmler-Cohen. It touches on some of the history of the Farm Bill, California Prop 12, and the looming disaster that is the EATS Act. I’m glad to see Rimmler-Cohen call for animal-centered organizations to take on the responsibility of making sure their work incorporates intersectional advocacy.
Lab-grown meat threatens Italian culture — Meloni minister - You may remember that in March the Italian government approved a bill to ban lab-grown food and animal feed in order to protect Italy’s agri-food heritage. To b ecome legislation, it just needed to pass the Italian parliament, which it just did. It’s currently unclear if this can actually prevent the sale of “synthetic meat” produced within the EU because of their structure that allows the free movement of goods and services. Stay tuned.
Q&Kay
Q: Do you think it's possible to be vegan and eat eggs? 👀
K: Sure and also definitely not.
As I’ve written about many times before, veganism lacks a universal definition and interpretation. It’s a cloudy and, in my opinion, overused term that is only helpful if context is provided.
Under my own conceptualization of what it means to be vegan, consuming eggs laid by an animal is not vegan. I’ll get the inevitable follow-up question out of the way—no I will not consume “backyard eggs” either. I don’t care where the eggs were sourced, within my vegan practice I do not consume animals or their secretions.
However, my conceptualization is not universally accepted. For example, I went to a friend’s birthday dinner at a sushi restaurant a couple of years ago and my friend introduced their friend to me as “another vegan”. Cool! As we were ordering my friend’s other vegan friend ordered sushi made with fish. Without having asked, the other vegan told me that they sometimes eat non-vegan things at restaurants because it’s more convenient. Not the first or last time I’ve had an interaction like this. This other vegan friend probably thinks of veganism as a diet more than an ethical practice and in the framework of a diet “cheating” or “breaking” the diet is not uncommon. Regardless, it’s clear our interpretation and practice of veganism differ in substantial ways; however, I’m not going to spend my time and energy policing their version and asserting mine as the singular truth.
Another point this discussion raises for me is consideration of the exceptions each vegan chooses to make. While I consider myself fairly strict (though not militant) in my own rules of veganism, there are times that I deviate. I do my best to research wineries and vineyards before drinking a glass of wine but sometimes the information is not available and I may have a glass even if I’m not certain the manufacturing of the wine was 100% animal-free. The same goes for shared fryers in restaurants. My ultimate preference, for vegan but also mainly kosher reasons, is to only eat foods that haven’t shared a fryer with food made from animals. Situationally, I may eat foods that were cooked in shared fryers if there aren’t other accessible options.
I am only able to adhere to my version of veganism because I have the privileges of being food secure, not having food allergies or health issues that impact my physical ability to eat, having access to a car or reliable transportation to get to grocery stores or restaurants, the means to buy my own food, and the ability to cook in a kitchen with electricity and all the necessary supplies. As long as I have these privileges and freedom to choose what I eat, I will not eat animals.
There are people who identify as vegan or who strive to be vegan but do not have these same privileges. They may have parents or guardians who do the food shopping and cooking and do not give them autonomy over their food choices. They may live in a place without a large variety of accessible animal-free foods, be displaced by an environmental or other humanitarian disaster, or may be reliant upon food or meal assistance that doesn’t provide them with the option to request a special diet. Veganism has to be realistic. This means refraining from the exploitation, commodification, and consumption of animals as far as is practicable and possible. This is a long way of saying that there are many situations where eating eggs, or other foods that come from animals, may be unavoidable. I don’t think a person who identifies as vegan and whose consumption choices are limited and dictated by necessity is any less vegan than I.
As always, you can submit a question for a future Q&Kay here!
Kvetch Hakarat HaTov Sesh
(Gratitude, or Recognizing the Good, Sesh)
This is a thank you to everyone who read, commented on, and/or reached out to me after reading what I wrote for my Grandpa J. I hope I responded to each of you individually but I want to reiterate how grateful I am to have a supportive community in my little slice of the internet.
You likely subscribed to this newsletter for food news and vegan commentary, or maybe you just really love Ginny (no arguments here), and it would be so easy to delete a post or unsubscribe from content that isn’t exactly what you signed up for. It would be easy not to care about the person behind the posts. But every time I have shared a more personal, vulnerable piece—instead of the usual food systems news— I’ve been met with kindness and compassion. I’ve felt cared for, by you, in this way.
Grief is hard. It’s isolating, completely overwhelming, and it can be scary. Being able to turn my grief, frustrations, anxieties, and fears into words on a page has always been my preferred form of catharsis. Having my words read by others and hearing that they relate to my situation or have found comfort in what I’ve written is still relatively new. Thank you for embracing my vulnerabilities and thank you to those who, in turn, have shared your own.
I posted the above piece having no idea that a few weeks later, I’d be not okay in a whole new way. In my caption, I mentioned that Judaism raised me to hold the grief of others. I’ll expand on that. Judaism gave me a foundation for knowing how to show up for those who are grieving and taught me some of what I can expect when I am the one grieving. Moving through the past few weeks I’ve had to practice both roles simultaneously. Grief seems unescapable in this world. Reflecting on other times of grief while sitting deeply in my current stage of grief, my takeaway is the same—caring for one another is our greatest strength.
If you have your own HaKarat HaTov, someone or something you are grateful for, that you’d like to share please leave a comment below!
Really well thought out newsletter. I wish more people could read your answer to the Q&Kay section. Seems like so many people calling others fake vegans or BS like that just to feel good about themselves or to shame people trying their best to practice how they want.